Contents

Appearance

Rukia Kuchiki ten years after the defeat of Yhwach.

As stated by Byakuya, Rukia is the spitting image of her sister, Hisana. She is of slender build, with pale skin, black hair, and purple eyes. Prior to the timeskip, Rukia's hair was cut just above her shoulders; additionally, a strand of her hair falls over her forehead and face, resting above her nose. Rukia is typically dressed in a Shinigami's Shihakushō; this attire consists of a white shitagi, a black kosode, a black hakama, a white hakama-himo, white tabi, and waraji.

During her time in the Human World, Rukia would wear a plethora of clothing, often nicked from Yuzu Kurosaki's wardrobe, yet was most frequently seen wearing the Karakura High School uniform.

After the timeskip, Rukia made slight alterations to her appearance. She cut her hair shorter, with the ends resting at her neck. Her attire hardly changed, though she now wore the same fingerless white tekkō as Byakuya, which covered her arms up to the bicep. Her right sleeve was rolled up, tied by the Lieutenant's badge of the 13th Division. Briefly after training with the Royal Guard, Rukia would don special Ōken Clothing. This attire was crafted from the bones and hair of the members of the Royal Guard, with Rukia's taking the appearance of a billowing shawl, long-white cloak, fluffy white earmuffs, a white visor, as well as shortened tekkō. These accoutrements would be destroyed when Rukia activated Bankai.

Rukia's final attire change would occur ten years after the defeat of Yhwach. While still barely changing physically, Rukia would go on to grow her hair down to back-length. Fitting her new position, Rukia now wears the haori typical of all Captains in the Gotei 13.[4]

Personality

History

Approximately a century and a half ago,[2], Rukia, alongside her older sister, Hisana, passed away in the Material World. When she and her sister were inducted into the Izuzuri District of the Rukongai, Rukia was abandoned by her sister when she found it difficult to live in the Rukongai and raise a child.[5]

Story

Shinigami Agent Arc

Rukai enters Ichigo's room.

Early in the morning, Friday, in Karakura Town, Rukia senses the presence of a powerful spiritual energy. Her search for this powerful spirit energy leads her to the room of a Human, Ichigo Kurosaki. She is surprised that not only can this human see her, but he can also touch her, having kicked her for suddenly appearing in his room. When the Human tries to point her out to his father, she explains that normal humans cannot see her — she is a Shinigami. She is flabbergasted by Ichigo's flagrant disbelief in Shinigami despite the fact that he can see Souls, yet this disbelief turns to anger when Ichigo treats her like a child. She quickly binds Ichigo with Kidō, explaining precisely what she did and sending his insults back to him. She then proceeds to perform what she calls a Konsō, sending a Soul to the Soul Society. Using poor drawings, she then explains the nature of her mission, and the existence of evil Souls — Hollows — alongside normal Souls, called Pluses.[2]

Fishbone D's spiritual pressure overwhelms Rukia.

She goes on to state that she's tracking a Hollow, but recently lost sense of it. Only when Ichigo demands that she go kill it, and he hears it, does Rukia hear the bloodcurdling call of the beast. Making to leave, she is overwhelmed by the force of the Hollow's spirit energy, wondering how she couldn't have sensed it before. Ichigo's sister comes in, severely wounded by the Hollow, and urges him to run. He stands to try and break the Kidō, despite Rukia's warnings, and completely shatters it, bolting outside. Rukia is left stunned, having never seen a Human like him. [2]

Rukia prepares to transfer her powers to Ichigo.

Rukia injures the Hollow, allowing Ichigo to save his sister. She explains that the Hollow was looking for a certain soul — his soul — and he takes this to mean that the entire situation is his fault. When the Hollow moves in to attack Ichigo, who offers it his soul, Rukia shields him with her body, admonishing him for his stupidity. Being too wounded to fight, Rukia offers Ichigo a way out — accept half of her Shinigami powers and fight the Hollow himself. He accepts, and the two introduce each other as Rukia plunges her Zanpakutō into his body. Ichigo absorbs all of Rukia's powers, much to her shock, and slays the Hollow.[2]

She would later be found in her powerless state by Kisuke Urahara, who offered her a Gigai.[6][7] Using the Kikanshinki, she replaced the memories of Ichigo's family to cover up the event.

Rukia removes Ichigo's soul from his body.

Rukia would later show up as a student in Ichigo's classroom, threatening the safety of the young man if he revealed who she was. After class, Ichigo took Rukia away from everyone to find out what she was doing. Rukia explained that she is currently stuck residing in a Gigai, unable to return to Soul Society as Ichigo stole nearly all of her Shinigami powers. Because of this, she believes he should do her work as a Shinigami until her powers return. When Ichigo refuses, she removes his soul from his body and drags him to a children's park. She tells Ichigo that a Hollow will attack the soul of a boy that frequents the park within the next five minutes. As Ichigo is about to jump in to fight the Hollow, Rukia orders Ichigo to stop, saying that Hollows will attack souls no matter if Ichigo is there or not — if he intends to save this one boy, he needs to commit to saving all souls. When Ichigo throws her words in her face and saves the boy, Rukia is left speechless. Ichigo, however, agrees to help her, and Rukia wishes him luck. [8]

Weaknesses

Battles

Kills

Trivia

According to Tite Kubo, in an interview with the mangaka of My Hero Academia, Kōhei Horikoshi, Rukia originally started off as a simple name. He mentions having heard someone on the television mention the name of an alien species that sounded like "Kuchiki Rukia". He wrote her name with specific characters that sybolised a grim reaper, and that was part of how Rukia came into existence.[9]